


Broken Time

by moriatake



Category: OC - Fandom, no one in particular
Genre: Regret, Rewind - Freeform, Some grief, Time - Freeform, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2019-01-01 01:51:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12146046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moriatake/pseuds/moriatake
Summary: When things are rebuilt,  not everything stays the same.





	Broken Time

People change. Things pass, things go. Some are forgotten- others, unforgettable. He remembers all of them, yet time never waits. 

“Hey, can you take a look at this? It’s broken, and I don’t know how to fix it.”  
He looks up from his work to see a girl from his class hold out a broken robot. He knows her well, but neither of them acknowledge their history with the other openly.  
“Sure.” He takes the toy from her and flips it around a couple times between his fingers.  
“Nothing seriously wrong, just a part that’s broken. Should be pretty easy to fix.”   
“Ah, that’s good to hear. I thought it’d be permanently damaged or something.” She laughs a little bit.  
He shrugs, then starts pulling out tools left and right. The tools are familiar to him, but he knows they’ll eventually rust away.   
Just like everything else I’ve ever cared about, he thought sardonically.  
The girl watches with wide eyes, oblivious to his inner turmoil.  
“This is going to take awhile. Go and do something else.” He mutters, pointedly looking away from her.  
“No, I’m fine with whatever. I can stay, right?”  
“...You’ll get bored, guaranteed.” But he lets her stay and watch anyway.  
He turns his attention back to the robot. Not broken, just in need of a replacement. Probably worn down from overuse, a small fight or whatever. Though… it would fade away in the end, so what was the point of fixing it?  
Shaking his head, he sets about replacing the damaged section.   
Moments pass, but they feel like years to him. How long had it been since he had last sat alone with her?   
“You’re still the same as ever - always fixing complicated things in a jiffy. What is it, magic?” Her question startles him out of his thoughts.  
“It’s not magic; it’s science. Easily solvable when equipped with the correct theory- way simpler than magic.”  
She rolls her eyes to his his answer. “Yeah, yeah. Theories… so convoluted and boring. Just like you and your talk.”  
“I did say I would bore you, didn’t I?” Out of habit, he teased her a little, then caught himself. Fortunately, she didn't seem to notice.   
“Just trying to make the conversation a little more interesting. So is there anything you can’t fix, or?”  
“Plenty.” He reaches for a new tool, but a screw pops loose in the process. The girl picks it up and spins it between her fingers.  
“Oh? Like what?”  
He looks at her for a moment, then pushes a wire back into the correct place before answering.   
“...Feelings, emotions. Life and death, and many other things. Really makes you think how everything ends in futility, huh? And then that life goes on... to include you.”   
He reaches out for the screw she has in her hand at the end of his sentence.   
She’s silent for a moment, processing the information, then bursts out laughing.  
“Haha… you’re better, after all. You’ve gotten more humorous.” She hands him the screw after spinning it one more time.  
“Have I? I don’t notice these things.” He takes it and puts it in the original place where it fell out of.  
“More or less…”  
He looks up at her, hearing the change in her tone. The girl has a small smile on her face, then looks away, as if thinking about something.  
“-You’re right. In the end, we achieve nothing.” Her voice is light, but the weight of the words were a heavy burden on his conscience.  
“Not true. One can achieve many things, but the meaning of those achievements mean nothing.” His tone matches hers evenly, both of them hiding the true purposes of their words away. She looks at him directly at this time, her smile suddenly a little forced.  
“Fine, then.” Mercifully, the subject was dropped, and they fade back into a silence.  
Her eyes never leave him as she casually leans back in her seat.  
“...What is it? You keep looking at me.”  
“Oh, nothing. I’m just reminded of our old chats, when you were less serious.” She snorts back, her voice clipping at the end in a teasing way.  
A ghost of a smile finds its way across his face. “And here I am, thinking you were never one to reminisce.”  
Memories of moments he had once shared with her flitted briefly across his mind, before he expertly stashed them away once again.  
“And you don’t? Or are you finally tired of the same things, over and over again?”  
Her question pierces through him, and his heart jumps. She knew his answer, and yet she still asked him… was she searching for something else? Real answers, perhaps.  
“Tired of everything? I guess so, but-”  
“Are you unhappy where you are now, then?” Her voice gradually turns angry at his pathetic excuse to cover up his obvious discomfort.  
“Er…” His hands slip and the robot drops a few centimeters, but he manages not to let anything fall onto the table. “I’d reset a lot of things if I could. Fix everything over again, give it all a redo. Live again.” He admitted sheepishly, readjusting his hands around the robot.  
“What’s the point of living the way you do if you can’t enjoy what’s here now? What’s your purpose? You’re just living a lie then,” Her chair is pushed back suddenly, and she’s leaning in close, anger evident across her face, “and a pretty obvious one, at that.”  
He gives her a carefully closed look. “Don’t talk as if my past was an unbecoming one.”  
“Oh, but it is. How long will it take for you to stop looking back, then? How long? Answer me, with your theories and calculations.”  
How long it would take to get over all of that… made it impossible for him to invest his time into anything else. His mistakes rewrote her past, but not his own. Memories that were altered, only slightly astray from the ugly truth. And it was a burden, his alone, because he was the cause of it all.  
His silence angers her, and she clenches her fists on the table. “You’re a real bore, you know that? We’re all going to die sometime. Unbecoming? Who gives a damn! If you’re really as dissatisfied as you say you are…”  
He has to catch the punch she throws at him with his hand, and he drops the screwdriver onto the table.  
“...Then you should hurry up and die!” she finished, glaring at him.  
“What’s it to you? Let me live in peace. I chose to be alone.” He snapped, irritably blowing dust off the wires, feeling her words sting him. Why were they so angry at eachother? It would have never been like this. Her memories of him were worn down and unreliable, yet here they were.   
“Maybe you’re right. I should’ve let a boring guy live his boring life.” She sat down in a huff, pulling her chair back up again. He sighed, both thankful and a bit disappointed.  
“If I really bore you so much, then you should’ve listened to me earlier and went somewhere else.”  
“Time I wasted, then.”  
Both of them sit in strained silence until he finally closes the back of the robot and hands it to her.  
“Take care of it… can’t risk breaking it again, okay?”  
She takes the robot, less worked up now that she’s let out her anger.  
They both stare at the robot, and he can’t help but start thinking about how easily it was fixed. Despite the process of replacing the part, it was still working fine.   
If only his past were that easy to repair.  
“...Thank you.” Her words startle him, but he’s quick to recover.  
“It’s not a big deal. Just don’t keep breaking it, and you’ll be fine-”  
“No, not just that. I’m sorry for lashing out at you.” She looks down at the toy, abashed. “I just thought you’d be happy, since everything else already happened. I guess I was wrong. Just… thanks for everything you’ve done for me, up till now.”  
He pauses for a moment, then gives her a rare smile.   
They’ve been through so much. Her past and his lined up perfectly, broken pieces of a puzzle that somehow managed to fit. He knew how lonely she had been, how they had both found solace in each other. Back then… it had been so easy. Before their worlds split. Everything that disintegrated, then rebuilt itself.   
And when things are rebuilt, some parts don’t stay the same.  
He pushes these thoughts aside with a simple, “It’s fine.”  
That seemed to work. She smiles back, then pushes her thumbs under his cheeks, forcing his smile wider.   
“What are you-”  
“You’re getting there. Try and cheer up, okay? Don’t think about all those complicated things from back then, and enjoy what’s here, now.”  
Then she turns away, leaving him where he is.  
What a simple person, living a simple life. Her wish to live for tomorrow had never wavered since he first met her.  
He turns around to walk away as well, but out of the corner of his eye he sees something.  
Instantly, he’s sucked back into it. He smells the dust. Hears the gentle hum of machinery, senses the soothing orange light. And a warm voice, telling him it’d be okay when he woke up.   
His past never failed to haunt him.  
Tears slowly fall from his eyes, and he wipes them away angrily when he realizes they’re there. He collapses where he once stood, bitter tears of regret and frustration flowing freely down his face, dripping onto the ground.  
Usually, he can cover up his memories, but something about this did not go away as easily as the others had. 

All he sees is the past. Flashes of who he is, where he comes from. He sleeps only to find himself dreaming of what has happened, and the harsh reminder that he can change nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> TJSKFJ THANKS FOR READING MY LITTLE THING   
> this piece is a little personal to me, because its a careful vent of my life, and its also inspired by something I read a while ago but I don't remember what it was. 
> 
> anyways! I'll eventually post more league works hopefully because I've had a file stare at me for a while now, telling me I haven't been productive. at all. 
> 
> thank you for reading!


End file.
